Exceeding Expectations
by KittyRoseAesthetic
Summary: A lot of things about Krystal is a mystery, kept hidden behind a labrinth of lies and secrets. However, secrets are designed to be found out eventually. Questions arise around her, for instance, what connection does she with Professor Sycamore? She is on a journey to grow stronger, but why? And what is this quest the Professor has sent her on? Is she connected to Team Flare? R&R.
1. Prologue

Two sets of footsteps raced down the hallway, quiet giggles erupting from the small children. They stopped outside of a wooden door, both turning to and shushing each other. On the count of three they burst through the door and jumped on top of a lump covered by a duvet. In unison the children cried "Wake up!" repeatedly until groans were heard from the lump.

"Ugh, go away." From underneath the duvet a groggy girl with lilac hair came up.

"How many times do I have to tell you two to stay out of my room?" she asked the small children with a glare.

"I don't know, we can't count," replied the blonde boy,

"Not past 5 anyway." the blonde girl added.

Sighing the older girl sat up and pulled the younger ones into her sides.

"Y'know, I'm going to really miss you guys,"

"Then don't go!"

"Mercedes, I have to."

"No, you don't! Daddy says you don't have to do anything you don't want to."

"Jack, I have to go, because I want to get stronger."

By this point the twins were beginning to cry, they were close to their big sister, but recently she started leaving more, each time longer than the last…

"I'll come back, you know that, just like I came back for your birthdays."

"Yeah," they sniffled.

"Why don't you two go wake daddy?" Instantly the two stopped crying and with grins on their faces rushed out of the room, presumably to awake their father.

Huffing, the older girl slumped back down into the bed to try and get back to sleep, however, she wasn't so lucky and quickly got out of bed. Looking out the window she took note of the weather before moving over to her dresser where she brushed out her matted hair and got dressed. As she was checking her bag she was interrupted by a knock at her door. Without invite, a tall man walked in; her father.

"Do you really have to go so soon?"

"Yes Dad, if I want to get stronger I need to train."

"There's no changing your mind is there?" he asked with a sorrowful look taking over his face. Before she could reply he reminded her to check in with Professor Sycamore and left her room briskly.

In frustration she kicked over a trash can and in that instant a flash of red erupted from her bag.

"Riolu!" the small canine cried as it padded up to the girl. Taking a deep breath the girl calmed down and grabbed her bag, slinging it over her shoulder as she opened her window.

"Let's go Riolu, they'll be fine." and just like that both trainer and Pokémon were gone through the window.


	2. Chapter One: Hi?

Chapter One: Hi…?

When I dropped by the Professor's Lab for a quick check in, Professor Sycamore convinced me to go along with him on a research trip. That was now two weeks ago. If the research trip wasn't about mega-evolution then I would be training hard for the Kalos League but instead, I'm with the Professor trying to convince Diantha, the Kalos Champion, into letting us borrow her keystone.

Unfortunately, we didn't get very far before she was hurried off into the next room for her make-up. Being a movie star and the champion seemed pretty sucky, always being busy and by the looks of it, hardly having time to yourself.

We were currently waiting for Diantha's make-up to be finished so we could continue to try and sway her into allowing us to borrow her keystone. We'd already finished the main task we were here for. Professor Sycamore was looking over the previously gathered research on his tablet while I who currently had nothing useful to do, was sketching and thinking about mega-evolution. From the moment that Professor Sycamore had told me about it I was completely fascinated, I told him that if he ever needed my help with the research that he shouldn't hesitate to call. As time went on, I learnt more about mega-evolution and decided that while on my own journey to get stronger, I wanted to find an answer for the one enquiry I hadn't asked the Professor. I was wondering if a trainer could achieve mega-evolution with multiple Pokémon. I hummed at that thought and looked down at my sketch, a keystone surrounded by 3 blank circles. I could only assume that they represented mega stones… but that seemed way too far-fetched, I mean, I'm not a psychic.

"You've got that inquisitive look on your face again, what is it?" Professor Sycamore asked. Whenever I pondered over my question he always seemed to notice but he's never asked before.

"I was just wondering something is all…" I replied, my mind clearly elsewhere, this was a regular occurrence, but I didn't want to ask just yet, whilst there's no evidence for or against it, it was all speculation at this time, and I didn't want to seem like an idiot.

Instead of pestering to know what it was he got up and slightly opened the door that led to the hallway. Now that I was focused on my surroundings I noticed that we could hear the vast amount of reporters that were trying to get an interview with Diantha. Though that was pretty normal so I didn't understand why the Professor had gotten up.

"Hey, over here, nice to see you," I heard him say.

After that, I curiously watched from my seat as a group of 4 walked in and sat down. When they were settled, they noticed me and sent me confused looks; obviously because they didn't know me.

"Guys, I would like you to meet Krystal, she's been helping me out with my research." Out of politeness, I smiled towards them. I wasn't the best at socialising, in fact, I'd say I'm probably one of the worst.

"Hi, it's nice to meet you, I'm Ash and this is my buddy Pikachu!" "Pika!" The boy with the red cap said - he seemed the most confident too.

"And I'm Serena," She seemed… nice.

"I'm Bonnie, this is Dedenne-"

"Ne, Ne,"

"And this is my big brother," Aww so sweet, she reminded me of the twins in a way. Maybe it was the blonde hair? Or the bubbly nature?

"Hi, I'm Clemont."

"It's nice to meet you all," I said (once again in politeness) after they finished introducing themselves. After Serena asked the Professor what we were doing here, he explained that we were doing extensive research on Diantha's Gardevoir and it's mega-evolution.

"It can really mega-evolve?" Clemont asked. Rolling my eyes I reminded myself that not everyone knows as much as I do about mega-evolution and that it was not a stupid question. Whilst Professor Sycamore continued explaining things to them I returned to my sketchbook and turned over the page to start a new sketch. This time I began to draw a group of Eevee.

Of course, I looked up when I heard Ash say 'yes' loudly and walk over to the door that led to the next room, where Diantha was. At first, I was a little confused, but then it occurred to me that he probably wanted to challenge her to a battle. I couldn't blame him, every trainer has probably imagined battling her, even I have. Although I actually did get a chance to battle her, it was a little slow at first I didn't fall into her trap of letting me have the first move. It's how she learns the opposition's battle technique. Despite dodging her trap, I still lost fairly quickly, but that's okay, she said my strategy and reaction time was good, I just needed to be stronger… and more confident. Man, the amount of times I've been told that. At that moment, Diantha came out apologising for keeping us waiting.

"Oh dear, I see you have guests don't you?" She asked once she looked towards the newcomers. The four immediately went over and stared in awe of her beauty. I think I even heard Bonnie muttering 'so pretty'. While they're not wrong it was a little overwhelming to see them fangirl over her, and that was just me on the sidelines, I wonder how Diantha feels; of course, she gets this all the time so would she be used it?

When the Professor went over I followed him, and stood next to him with a hopeful look as he asked,

"So, did you reconsider what we spoke about earlier, Diantha?"

"You mean about me lending you this Keystone, right?"

'Mhmm," I confirmed for her,

"I'm sorry but I'm afraid I can't, if there's anything else I can do, then I'd be happy to help, but this Keystone is a part of the bond I have with Gardevoir. I can't lend it to anyone, sorry."

"We understand how you feel, but please," I sighed at how desperate he sounded, he'd do anything for his research.

"Alright then, I suppose that the next time I'm in Lumiose City and if I have some time-" As quick as my hopes rose they shot back down again when her manager walked in saying that it's not going to happen.

"Diantha's schedule is jam packed, right now we haven't any plans to go to Lumiose City," she said with a fierce face and reaching on her tippy toes to look the Professor in the eyes easier. He quite tall and she was a little small. I ship 'em. Professor Sycamore only smiled and tried to woo her with a bit of flirting. Of course, he only got a book to the face, which I laughed at. Still, he tried to ask her out to dinner but she just turned away saying 'nope' and popping the 'p'. Have I mentioned I ship them yet, or?

"Quit flirting Professor, we're supposed to be here on business," As much I hated it I needed to remind him of this fact and that mixing business with personal stuff probably wouldn't be the best idea, yet. Looking at my holo-caster I noticed that the exhibition battle was starting in 15 minutes, Diantha had already left at this point.

"Professor, if we want to make it to the battle on time then we should get going now,"

'Ah, right, shall we all head up together then?"

* * *

Up against Diantha was a trainer called Magnus, he was apparently titled the best in Brackish Town last year. I hope the battle's good and that it lasts a while, maybe we'll get to see Mega Gardevoir in action. Professor Sycamore was sat on my left with his camcorder out ready to record the battle, even if we don't get to see Mega Gardevoir in action, we may be able to identify something that is related to the bond they have and that alone should assist our research. Ash was on the Professors left with the others next to him, I overheard him taking this opportunity to ask the professor about the Keystone we mentioned earlier. Tuning out the Professor's explanation I focused on the battlefield.

Diantha had sent Gardevoir out to which Magnus followed suit by sending out an Absol. A good match up, any of Gardevoir's Psychic type moves wouldn't have an effect on Absol since it's a Dark type. Hmm, that reminded me…

"Hey, can't Absol Mega-Evolve?" I asked the professor,

"I believe so, but to be certain I would need to be able to conduct some extensive research," he responded, our eyes not once leaving the battle that was in full swing.

"Right." At this point, the Absol was using Perish Song, but Gardevoir quickly used Moonblast, a Fairy-type move which was super-effective against Dark types. The attack hit the Absol before it finished with Perish Song leaving the Absol unable to battle and Diantha the winner. It was a shame that the battle didn't last very long and that Gardevoir never needed to Mega-Evolve. It just goes to show how strong our champion is and that nobody should underestimate her.

Apparently, we'd decided to go ask Diantha about borrowing her Keystone again and Ash wanted to ask her about a battle since he didn't get to earlier. When we got down to the hallway we overheard a security guard telling reporters that she had already left the stadium. Well, that sucks. Looking up at the Professor I asked what we were to do now, but got no reply, I don't think he heard me, I tended to be a little quiet and besides he had that thinking look on his face.

"Aww, that's too bad. What do we do now?" Clemont spoke up,

"Just a moment. I know, let's go here," Serena said enthusiastically as she pointed to a place on her adventure log.

"It says, they make the best chocolate cake then anywhere else, so let's find out." She continued.

"I wanna go too!" Bonnie exclaimed, her eyes brightening at the idea of cake.

"Sounds great,"

"Professor, Krystal, would you like to come to?" Nooo, I thought as Clemont invited us. Welp, I'm doomed, the Professor wouldn't turn down cake for no one.

"Sure do, first I have to send the footage to the research lab. Krystal, why don't you go on ahead with them and I'll meet up with you there." I thought about protesting but decided against it and just nodded to the Professor. I know better than to try and change his mind anyway and besides, protesting would've only made things more awkward between me and the others.

"Great!" Clement replied and with that, we all began to make our way out of the stadium. Before leaving the Professor's eyesight, I made sure to throw him a slight glare to show that I was unhappy with this situation he'd put me in and I could've sworn his grin got bigger; although I wasn't 100% sure that, that was entirely possible. Curse him, he's gone and put me in a situation where I have to socialise, have I mentioned that I'm not a fan of socialising?

Luckily, not much conversation was made on the walk over, the talk was mainly from Serena and Bonnie who were in front of Ash, Clemont and I, they were pretty eager to get some cake. When we approached the shop there was a crowd clustered around the entrance, this seemed to disappoint the girls for a second before they became even more determined to get some cake. While Bonnie and Serena went to get some cake, us three found an empty table outside of the shop. For a minute we were sat in an awkward silence, it was as uncomfortable as you could imagine. Both Ash and Clemont looked like they wanted to say something, while Pikachu just looked confused at the silence.

"So, Krystal, how did you come to be helping the Professor with his research?" Clement broke the silence. Clearing my throat before speaking (trying to make my voice appear louder) I replied,

"Well, he knew that I was interested in learning about mega-evolution and he needed an assistant for this trip so that he didn't miss or forget anything, so when I came over to check in with him he just asked me. It seemed like a win-win."

"Are you a trainer as well then?" This time it was Ash who asked me,

"Yeah, I plan to enter the Kalos League -"

"Awesome! So do I, do you have any badges yet?" He cut me off,

"Two."

"We should battle sometime," he concluded.

"Sure, if you wanna lose." I enjoyed talking about battles, it got me all fired up and confident.

"I wouldn't be too sure about that when we battle, We'll win for sure won't we Pikachu?"

"Pika, Pika!" I was smirking now, they were getting fired up as well, and cocky too. If I was crazy I might have admitted to seeing electric sparks fly between me and him, but that wouldn't be scientifically possible unless Pikachu was discharging some electricity which he clearly was not.

"We finally managed to get a piece of cake," Serena announced as she and Bonnie returned distracting us from our previous conversation.

"I can't wait to try some," Ash said reaching out for the cake causing Serena to slap his hand away.

"This slice is for the five of us, we need to split it first," She said. I'll save my part for the professor, Arceus knows I'll never hear the end of his whining if he missed out.

"Sounds like that's my cue. The future is now thanks to science, Clemontic Gear on!" Clement suddenly spoke up, pushing his glasses up so that the light would cast a glare across the lens'.

"I call it the Precisely-Even-Cut-O'-Matic!" He said as he pulled out some weird gadget… What even was that name? Ignoring his explanation I just watched as he began to prepare to cut the slice into five equal pieces.

"You're sold out already?" I overheard a familiar voice, we all looked over to a woman shrouded in a black trench coat. When the member of staff confirmed that there wasn't any more cake the woman became very dramatic claiming that it was the end of the world. What an exaggeration.

"Ma'am, if you'd be happy with a bite, then we'd be happy to share our slice with you," Ash called out to the woman. When she turned to face us we could see that she was wearing large sunglasses, she seemed like someone who wouldn't want to be recognised. I swear I knew this woman but from where…

"You will?" she asked hopefully,

"Yeah," Ash replied.

"Wait, haven't I seen you all before?" she asked, her voice changed only slightly. Wait, that's Diantha! No wonder she seemed familiar. The others just looked at her confused, so when she lowered her sunglasses they were shocked to see it was Diantha.

"Knew it," I muttered.

After everyone got over the initial shock, Clemont began to cut the slice again with his weird gadget, this time into six equal pieces. While the others ate their bites I wrapped mine in a napkin for the Professor. Apparently, it really was the best cake ever, this led to a whole conversation about desserts. I wonder what's taking the Professor so long, I thought as I carefully stuffed the wrapped up cake piece into my backpack. Zoning back into the conversation I noticed that Bonnie was down on one knee asking Diantha to take care of Clemont… That must be embarrassing, poor Clemont.

"Um, excuse me Diantha, but would you please have a Pokemon battle with me?" After an inspiring speech from Ash, Diantha agreed to battle him.

"Battle against the Champion eh?" Oh, look who finally showed up, the Professor.

"If you don't mind, I'd like to come watch," So, we all grabbed our things and went to find a clearing where they could battle.

* * *

Once we found a large clearing for Ash and Diantha immediately got into position and the professor whipped out his camcorder, hoping to see a mega evolution this time. It had been decided that Clement would referee the match whilst the rest of us stood safely on the sidelines. It was Gardevoir against Pikachu, a little predictable if you ask me, but ah well. As soon as the battle begun, Diantha gave Ash the first move, again predictable… If it wasn't so obvious that it was a part of her tactic then I'd be wondering if I was psychic.

From watching them battle I could tell that Pikachu was rather strong and that there was quite a bit of experience there except, Ash's battle technique was very offensive. When Gardevoirs shadow ball sent Pikachu flying I thought it was over, however, both Diantha and Ash agreed that the battle was just beginning. As Ash was checking if Pikachu was okay, a weird cube that produced a net was chucked towards Gardevoir, successfully trapping her. What the actual hell?

The supposed bad guys revealed themselves and started yapping on about something or other. To say that I listened would probably be the biggest lie of the century. "Who are those loons?" I asked to no one in particular. Apparently, no one heard me as we were a little busy running closer to where they resided in their hot air balloon. Not gonna lie, it was kinda cool.

"Team Rocket! You're doing it again?" Ash yelled. They know these guys? Brilliant.

"They're a bunch of really bad guys who go around stealing other people's Pokemon," Serena clued me in.

"Lovely," I sarcastically commented,

"So despicable," Diantha added.

"Why thank you," Violet Guy said. Yeah, I really wasn't listening when they introduced themselves.

"Since I'm the greatest actress of all time, I accept your kind words," Crazy Lady shouted down to us.

"Okay, one: Irrelevant, two: I highly doubt that you're the greatest actress of any time," I did not mean to say that out loud, my bad.

"Oh, how rude," Crazy Lady replied to me, You know what, I've already annoyed her why not just really tick her off.

"You're welcome, Crazy Lady," I said as I laughed a little, I don't know about anybody else but I really crack myself up. Crazy Lady looked just about ready to leap out of the basket and fight me but fortunately for both sides, we were both being pulled back by our respective groups.

"Don't antagonise them, Krystal," Professor Sycamore chided me.

Focusing back onto the issue at hand, Diantha tried to get Gardevoir to break the ropes by using shadow ball, unfortunately, the attack just dissipated as it touched the ropes. What are those ropes even made of? That's when another cube thing was tossed at our feet, this time when it hit the ground it produced a thick grey smoke which caused us all to choke and our vision to become impaired. It didn't take long for the smoke to clear but by the time it did Team Rocket had already got away and were out of eyesight. How does a hot air balloon even vanish that quickly?

"Don't worry, I'll lead us right to them," Diantha said strangely calm.

"Do you know where Gardevoir is?" The Professor asked. To which she just replied with a simple yes. Could it be to do with the Mega Bond? I wondered. Quickly we all ran after Diantha to assist her in getting Gardevoir back. Now, usually I don't mind running, I'm actually okay at sprinting, I quite enjoy a bit of a run here and there. But long distance running will be the death of me, let's just say I'm not as fit as I tend to think I am. Whilst running Diantha told us about a time where she'd got lost on a film shoot and somehow Gardevoir had found her. Ash said something about their hearts being connected, which I agree with. Maybe, it did have something to do with the Mega Bond, after all, to achieve Mega Evolution the Trainer and Pokemon need to be connected as one… It makes sense to me.

Roughly ten minutes later we found Team Rocket and Gardevoir, Gardevoir was still hanging in the net from the balloon's basket. We stayed hidden in the bushes eavesdropping on them until Diantha turned to us and told us to stay here and that it'll be fine. We did as told and when I realised what was about to happen I nudged the Professor to tell him to get the camcorder out only to notice that he already had. Or maybe he hadn't put it away yet.

As Gardevoir Mega Evolved we all watched in awe, this was the first time that I'd seen a Pokemon Mega Evolve in person. It was, even more, epic in real life than on tape. I was so captivated by Gardevoir's Mega Form that I didn't even acknowledge that she had sent Team Rocket blasting off to Arceus knows where. I wonder if one day, I'll be able to have that bond with one of my own Pokemon. A girl could dream eh. Some point during the battle we had emerged from the bushes and were now standing with Diantha, seconds later we noticed that we could hear and well now see a helicopter.

"Now that's what I call perfect timing," Diantha said as she saw her manager waving to her from the copter. After saying our farewells to Diantha, her and her manager left and we started to make our way back to town. The others decided to stay at the Pokemon Centre tonight so on our way back we all made mindless chit chat with one another. Even I joined in occasionally.

That night we all had dinner together. It wasn't so bad, in fact, I'd say it was rather enjoyable… until the topic of what we plan to do next came up.

"Where are you guys off to next then?" Professor Sycamore asked he'd been asking Ash how his journey was going so this was inevitably the next logical question.

"We're heading to Shalour City for my next Gym Badge!" Ash answered all fired up.

"What about you Professor, Krystal? What are you guys going to do now?" Clement asked in return.

"I'm going to head back to the lab, I'll need to go over all the research I've gathered these past weeks," The Professor informed him.

"I believe you haven't challenged the Shalour Gym yet either, Krystal?"

"No Professor," He better not be going where I think he's going with this.

"Why don't you join them?" Goddammit. "You guys wouldn't mind right?" he asked them, completely skipping me.

Serena shook her head indicating that she was okay with it. Ash, Bonnie and Clemont spoke over each other saying 'The more the merrier,' and 'It'll be fun!' and "Not at all," respectively.

"There you go then, so what do you say?" The Professor asked me again. I think I know what he's doing… Sliding down in my seat I contemplated it.

I did need to get stronger and it was true that I had yet to challenge the Shalour Gym, challenging the Gym's was one of the best ways to get stronger, everybody knew that. It had been awhile since I got my last badge and had a good battle, my Pokemon must be so bored despite the regular training. I guess I could alway's come back and help Professor Sycamore out, although that would mean waiting even longer to ask my question. But if I stayed there's no telling when or if I would even ask him. If I train harder on route to Shalour City then it shouldn't take me too long to defeat the Gym Leader there surely. What harm could it do? I should put my focus back on getting stronger so that I can go home to Dad and the Twins sooner.

"Sure, I wouldn't mind it."


End file.
